Tag Archives: Michael Hyatt

One of the very first posts to this blog was about the importance of musicians building their core audience, or their Super-Fan listener base. That was in the fall of 2014. Here we are in the first quarter of 2015 and that subject is now taking a much larger role across many of the marketing and coaching experts’ platforms.

Do you know why?

You’re going to be hearing the term Super-Fan a lot in the coming years. I predict that the change in how businesses (large and small) market themselves is going to radically shift this year, leading everyone else to have to follow suit. The change is simple, and it’s been on the cusp of breaking out for quite a while.

It’s no longer a matter of growing a fan base that consists of merely a number anymore that makes a difference, or that leads to the success needed to keep the wheels turning on your career. This is true for completely unknown musicians as well as those on indie labels, the DIY artist, and even the big-named maintstream powerhouse. Yes, even Beyonce and Taylor Swift will be changing the way they market their music in the coming years because numbers by themselves mean very little.

Facebook and Twitter made everyone a celebrity, or at least made it possible for everyone to be known by everyone else. In some cases, this led to better connections and relationships between people across the globe. But it also created avenues by which people worked to cheat the system, creating “followers” of brands that weren’t legitimate or at least not really engaged. Some social media marketers sell 5,000-10,000 fans to unsuspecting individuals to give the impression that the business, brand, or person has a large following. But bots don’t buy, and buying followers does little to create any form of success worth bragging about.

This leads us to the shift that is taking place now, and will continue in the coming year. Honestly, it doesn’t matter if your Twitter profile is “followed” by 50,000 accounts (I say accounts because many of the followers on any profile are not actual people, regardless of how the follow happens). Followers can lead to business, can lead to buys, and can lead to the kind of success you want with your career. But relationships with followers that are cultivated through effective communication and reciprocated benefits leads to ongoing positive results for everyone.

This is where the Super-Fan group comes in. Your core audience are drawn to you for very specific reasons. They are passionate about you and what you do. That passion leads to a monetary exchange between them and you, through concerts/gigs, hard copy/digital copy music, merchandise, etc. These are the key people that create the ongoing success you are looking for.

Which is why I’m seeing more and more marketers, coaches, and music experts changing their messaging to center on the growth of Super-Fans than I ever have before.

Think about it, we have a limited amount of time each day, a limited quantity of resources to tap into for our entertainment, and a limitless, endless volume of choices at our disposal. Endless selection will mean for some people that they never settle on really taking in the products of the people who are making the creation. They’ll just stream here and there, listen here and there, and never leave their house, or buy anything you make. But others, the core Super-Fan, is a different person who operates and thinks about what they take in for their music enjoyment completely different.

These are the people you need to focus on.

Soon you’ll hear more people talking about growing your Super-Fan reach. It will become a trend, like the platform building model of the past year. But before the trend begins and long after it’s over it will still continue to be the way to grow and prosper.

Like I said, there are several coaches, marketers, and teachers who are promoting this line of thinking. My advice is to pick a few of these people and see what they have to say. See if their insights, advice, and wisdom leads to growth for you. I’m going to do the same thing. No one person is an “expert” on everything, and as long as you’re breathing you still have something left to learn. Here are a few of the music and marketing coaches and teachers I’m keying in on:

Michael Hyatt-Marketing and platform building coach; author of Platform: Get Discovered In A Noisy World

Is money the key to building a successful enterprise in the music industry? According to some people’s attitude, that’s all you need to rise above the noise and prevent impending failure. However, it’s so far from the truth that it’s truly tragic some people not only believe it, but it captures their feelings on what composes success. Conversely, having the right attitude is the perfect key you need for success.

This goes without saying but I’ve seen and experienced it WAY too many times to name. Even recently, I had a long conversation with a guy on one of my social channels who had a really terrible attitude all the way through about his current state of business. He works in radio, has a station with (I presume) a decent audience size, but no matter what ideas or options we talked about, the prognosis in his mind was that the situation was hopeless because he had no money.

I understand that. It’s really hard to get started doing anything, regardless of your market or industry, and even regardless of the experience you bring to the table or your personal connections to help you. Getting traction is really difficult. Musicians especially face an uphill battle going from completely unknown to known because there are SO many people making music, and the industry is BRIMMING with talent. However, despite all the competition and noise, it is possible to be heard and to make money with your product.

But failure to have the right attitude about this possibility (nay I say even chance), and you destin yourself to the fate you’ve chosen: failure.

Attitude is everything. Want more proof: read the so-called secrets or insights from some of history’s most successful people. i didn’t say the music industry’s most successful people or even business leaders most successful individuals. I said History. If the name Dale Carnegie doesn’t mean anything to you, you need to visit a library and at least read the description of How To Win Friends And Influence People (should be considered mandatory reading for anyone trying to make money outside of a corporate employer and even those people). His other big book is How To Stop Worrying And Start Living. All of his books, written in the early 1900s, correspond to the same theme: your thoughts and attitudes determine the reality you live in.

Nelson Mandela

I’ll name just a few other highly successful people in business and entertainment who have the exact same philosophy and have risen from poverty and the complete unknown to fame, wealth, and/or international notoriety. These individuals are Oprah Winfrey, Grant Cardone, Will Smith, Seth Godin, Michael Hyatt, Nelson Mandela, Morgan Freeman, and others. Each of these folks are world-renowned in their industries and have overcome tremendous obstacles on the path to success. What do they all have in common: a positive attitude.

Staying positive despite what challenges present themselves in your pathway is certainly not easy, which is why is it so uncommon. The easy option is to wallow in your sorrows, accept the thoughts that success will always elude you, and close your mind off to possibilities for improvement. This is common. Apart for what seems like the universe not favoring this attitude is the fact that people you are associated with don’t favor it either. You probably know a few people who see the glass as either half-empty or never having a drop in it, regardless of what is going on in their world. After a few conversations, these people will make you feel terrible about the world you know and become a huge drag on your emotions. Most of the time, you find yourself consciously and subconsciously avoiding them.

Consequently, if you adopt a similar attitude of failure, people will avoid you too. The same people who might be drawn to your music or your unique offering to the world will begin to be repelled by the stink of that bad attitude. A small few might be honest with you about why they are not as supportive as they once were, but most will remain silent. And you’ll be left wondering why.

Avoid this altogether by surrounding yourself with positive thoughts, positive people, uplifting messages and an attitude that good things will happen for you, regardless of what you may be seeing or feeling in the moment. We create the world we live in. This is the power of our thoughts. Want more insight into how to create and cultivate positive thinking, send me an email. I’d love to work with you on how to improve your life just with the power of positive thinking.